I'm back, and I want to be told how much I suck

[ICEE]

Hey, I haven't been on h2v in a while, but I'm here now to throw myself on the mercy of the court and ask for animation critique. My most recent animations would be these:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=a7zeg-WWuxg


The model shown is the standard halo 1 assault rifle model, but somewhat modded. It was given to me by Geometric Geek. The texture was given to me by Hdoan, and is an edited version of dano's released cmt mpv1 assault rifle skin, and since it isn't sigma's I'd like to point out that I do not use it in game. I take no credit for either of these, I only did the animations.

Somewhat less recent would be these:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=buc4zJbwK1U&feature=user

The model and texture here are both halo 2 rips.

I did not try to copy halo 2/3 or anything at all when I did these so please don't judge me that way.

Thanks for your input.

[Ifafudafi]

Now, I'm no animating expert, so I'll provide criticism at the level of the majority of viewers, rather than the elite few who can find incredibly minor technical problems that nobody else would actually notice.

Your SMG actually looks quite nice to me. Maybe a little cleanup on some ends, but overall, tasty.

AR, on the other hand, is a little dodgy. The melee animation, from what I've noticed in several games, should be a very quick "hit" motion, followed by a minute pause, and then retract in a slower fasion. You've almost got that; all you need to do is make the initial hit faster, and add a slight pause before retracting.
The firing animation seems to have a tad too much recoil. I'll leave it to Snaf to tell you the precise velocity and force that it should have, but you could probably get away with simply making it less pronounced.
When reloading, the animation for Chief grabbing and removing the clip is too smooth. Have him move his hand over the clip sort of quickly, take a quarter-second or so to grab it, and then pull even more quickly. Insertion is better. Also, have the rifle move a bit more with Chief's pull.

And nobody flame me for providing criticism without actually being a major animator. e_e

[ICEE]

Thank you for the well thought out criticism. This sort of thing is what really helps me. Whether your an experienced animator or not, I really do appreciate it. I'd rep you but I did just a few minutes ago.

[CrAsHOvErRide]

The animations are not very complex but they look really fluent to me...probably the best animations I have seen so far from my point of view.

[n00b1n8R]

TBH it's a little hard to tell what's going on with a black gun on a black background.
What I can see looks nice though. :)

[thehoodedsmack]

The animations are fluid and smooth, but Master Chief has never been one to move at half the speed of smell. The animations could be a tad quicker, and then they'll be perfect.

[FRain]

They're a bit too fluid (not too much but a bit), and they also need to be quicker, also think about changing the background color to a shade of gray (in MAX 8 press 8 (lmao) and change the environment color to a gray color)

Also, add a bit of an OOMPH to it.

[CtrlAltDestroy]

I'll be quick:

1. The "dip" at the end of the ready is too slow and out of place.
2. The melee animation is jerky at the end of the hit; the hit itself does not look very powerful at all.
3. The reload is too slow. The second tap on the magazine on the insert looks sloppy and generally unnecessary. The finger positioning on the bolt cycle looks awkward.
4. Your motions and transitions between "poses" are much too linear.
5. Your finger positioning doesn't look too attractive as a whole.

edit:

6. The recoil on your firing animation is much too strong for the weapon you're animating; the motion is too linear as well.
7. Your bolt should be reciprocating faster.

[ICEE]

Thanks guys. I will work on it some. Thanks in particular to flamingrain and ctrlaltdestroy, because I honest to god could not figure out how to change the background of the render, and because cad was very thorough. But I have to ask, what exactly do you mean by

7. Your bolt should be reciprocating faster.
? Do you mean that for the firing animation or the reload or both?

[Zeph]

It helps if you can actually see what the animation is doing. Contrast is your friend. Put in a white background.

[ICEE]

Yeah... We covered that. I'm going to do the grenade throw and touch up some things and replace that video with one with a contrasting background.